October 1992, Page 38, 83

Speaking Out

A Campaign to Discredit Islam? Time for American Muslims to Wake Up

By Paul Findley

Muslims constitute the second largest religious group in the United States, but they get little notice in American periodicals.

In fact, at times there is no notice at all. At other times, the mention is blurred, confusing, and unfair. For example, note the listings of the religious population of the United States as set forth in the 1985 and 1991 editions of World Almanac, a reference book first published in 1868 that is the nation's best-seller in the field.

The 1991 edition reports 145,384 million Americans affiliated with religious organizations as follows: Christians 139,152,000; Jews 5,935,000; Buddhists 100,000; miscellaneous 197,000. Muslims are not listed, although elsewhere in the almanac under "religious information," "Moslems" are cited as numbering six million-plus in the United States. A foot-note shows that this estimate dates "from 1980 or before." The source given for the listing which omits Muslims entirely is the 1990 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches.

It is interesting to note that the 1986 edition of the almanac used the correct word "Muslims" and placed the total at two million plus, an estimate dating from 1976, ten years before.

Why are Muslims omitted from the 1991 list of Americans affiliated with religious organizations? Why are they identified as "Moslems" one year and "Muslims" the next?

Can the omission be explained because the source is concerned with churches, not mosques, the Muslim places of worship? This explanation would suffice were it not for the fact that the listing includes Jews. The synagogue, not the church is, of course, the place of worship for Jews.

The omission may be either intentional or an oversight. Either way it suggests a problem in communication and human relations.

If intentional, it would fit the needs of the campaign to discredit Islam that now seems to be underway vigorously in the United States. The campaign seeks to present Islam as an evil, foreign influence that is hostile to Western civilization and to the United States and its ally, Israel, in particular. A decision to suppress information about the extent of the U.S. Muslim population would serve that interest. So would the confusing interchange of the terms "Moslems" and "Muslims."

If an oversight, it suggests that Muslims are not doing nearly enough to make neighbors aware of their presence.

Either way, a problem exists that deserves attention. For whatever reasons, the relative prominence and influence of Muslims and Jews are badly out of balance in the United States. Active supporters of Israel, mostly Jews, dominate the making of Mideast policy in the United States. Although such policy is often to their great disadvantage, Muslims generally remain silent and, publicly at least, uncomplaining. By contrast, if anything appears in the public domain, whether it becomes policy or not, that is even mildly critical of Israel or Judaism, the outcry is immediate and determined.

A Few Instructive Statistics

Here are a few highly instructive statistics. Worldwide, Jews number about 17 million, a minuscule portion-one-third of one percent-of the world's population. Muslims total nearly one billion-18 percent of the world total.

Thirty-five percent of the world's Jews live in the United States, which, now that the Soviet Union is dismembered, emerges as the world's only superpower. Over 20 percent live in Israel. Because of the Jewish state's intimate relationship with the U.S., this means that nearly one-half of the world's Jews are under the protective umbrella of the lone surviving superpower.

Expressed another way, the six million Jews who live in the United States comprise only 2.4 percent of its population, but they exert influence on its public policy far beyond the level their numbers alone would justify.

Through their leaders, lobbies and political action committees, they exert a powerful influence, especially on policy toward the Mideast. On almost all occasions, they are able to pressure the U.S. government into providing strong support for the actions undertaken by the government of Israel no matter what turns they take.

Many U.S. Jews disagree strongly and frequently with the actions of Israel. Surveys by their own organizations show that a majority of U.S. Jews occasionally object strongly to Israeli policy. The surveys even report that they believe that Jews, individually and through their organizations, should speak out publicly when they object. The sad fact is that they seldom do. They keep dissent to themselves, feeling constrained to let Jews who are, in a sense, on the firing line in Israel decide what courses of action are best.

Now consider another fact of the American population. According to the 1991 almanac, at least six million Muslims live in the United States. They are as numerous as Jews. Other estimates place the U.S. Muslim population at eight million. If correct, this means they outnumber Jews by one-third. If not, immigration and demography patterns suggest they soon will.

Muslims generally remain silent and, publicly at least, uncomplaining.

Like Jews, many Muslims are affluent, well-educated, successful in business, and leaders in their chosen vocations. They are often well-established in medicine and other fields of science. They are self-reliant by nature and seldom found on public welfare.

Like Jews, they are proud of their religious heritage and deeply concerned about occupied Jerusalem because it is the site of shrines vitally important to their faith. My personal assessment, based on years of acquaintance and close observation, is that their practice of rites and commitment to the tenets of their religious faith is at least as regular and deep as most Jews. (I should add that it is probably far greater than many Americans who profess Christianity.)

Despite these similarities, the influence of Muslims on public policy in the United States is almost non-existent. It is far below the level their numbers normally produce.

There are several reasons for this disparity:

Some Muslims are recent arrivals in the U.S. Most of these are first-and second-generations. Few Muslims lived in the U.S. prior to the end of World War II.

Immigrants often take at least a generation to assimilate-to become accustomed to the language and traditions of their new home and to feel comfortable about taking an active part in political life. Until that comfort level occurs, they hesitate to take positions on public policy. They are more inclined to listen than act.

Their loyalty to former homelands is at a level of intensity markedly lower than the usual Jewish commitment to Israel. Most of them have kept close ties of family, language and tradition, and for those reasons want life in their former homeland to be secure and happy. But this attachment is secondary to their new ties in the U.S.

For almost all Jews, Israel is the focus of unwavering and uncritical devotion, a depth of commitment to a foreign country almost unprecedented among people of any other religious faith.

Israel came into being in the wake of the dreadful oppression and extermination of Jews in Nazi Germany during World War II. To most Jews, Israel is a haven where they can be safe from any future wave of anti-Semitism.

These factors help to explain but not to justify the behavior of pro-Israel political forces, particularly the condoning of harsh treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories for many years.

Muslims must bestir themselves. These are not ordinary times. If Muslims wait for the desired "comfort level" before they begin to flex their political muscles in the United States, by then the tragedy of the Palestinian people may have reached a final, fiery chapter in which Muslims, Christians and Jews alike are consumed in an awful military showdown.

U.S. Muslims must begin to speak out now. They must not tarry. Time is too precious.

Opportunities to influence U.S. policy are at their fingertips every day. They have direct access to the same instruments for influencing public opinion that supporters of Israel use so effectively.

When I address Muslim audiences, I often describe their community in the U.S. as being, politically, a sleeping giant.

It has sufficient resources to take its rightful place of influence in America's political system. The sooner this occurs the better for all concerned-Muslims, Christians and Jews-regardless of where they live.

A logical first step is to insist that publications like the World Almanac correct the record.

Paul Findley, a member of the House of Representatives from Illinois for 22 years, is the author of the best-selling They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel's U.S. Lobby. He is founder and chairman of the Council for the National Interest in Washington, DC.

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